s of the period, and finding himself
unable to pay, began to absent himself from the place. Mrs. Locket
thereupon sent a man to dun and to threaten him with prosecution if he
did not pay. Sir George sent back word that if she stirred a step in the
matter he would kiss her. On receiving this answer, the good lady, much
exasperated, called for her hood and scarf, and told her husband, who
interposed, that "she would see if there was any fellow alive who would
have the impudence--" "Prithee! my dear, don't be so rash," said her
husband; "there is no telling what a man may do in his passion."

Richard Savage, the English poet and friend of Johnson, who included him
in his famous _Lives of the Poets_, was arrested for the murder of James
Sinclair after a drunken brawl in Robinson's coffee house in 1727. He
was found guilty, but narrowly escaped the death penalty by the
intercession of the countess of Hertford. A feature of his trial was the
extraordinary charge to the jury of Judge Page, who for his hard words
and his love of hanging, is damned to everlasting fame in the verse of
Pope. The charge was:

Gentlemen of the jury! You are to consider that Mr. Savage is a
very great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the
jury; that he wears very fine clothes, much finer than you or I,
gentlemen of the jury; that he has an abundance of money in his
pocket, much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; but,
gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard case, gentlemen of the
jury, that Mr. Savage should therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of
the jury?

Albert V. Lally[357] has made a collection of old coffee-house
anecdotes. Among them are the following:

The story is told of how Sir Richard Steele in Button's Coffee
House was once made the umpire in an amusing difference between two
unnamed disputants. These two were arguing about religion, when one
of them said: "I wonder, sir, you should talk of religion, when
I'll hold you five guineas you can't say the Lord's prayer."
"Done," said the other, "and Sir Richard Steele shall hold the
stakes." The money being deposited the gentleman began with, "I
believe in God", and so went right through the creed. "Well," said
the other when he had finished, "I didn't think he could have done
it."

* * * * *

There is another story of a f